Richard Parasol has passed away
We bid farewell to Richard Parasol, Friend and POLIN Museum Distinguished Benefactor, who died on May 8 in the USA.
Thanks to the support of the Parasol Family during the Capital Campaign, the dream of POLIN Museum became a reality. The Parasol Family Foundation is the patron of the King Matt’s Family Education Area, which offers smart and meaningful education to children, based on the teachings of Janusz Korczak.
Every meeting with Richard was an unforgettable experience, and his enthusiasm, commitment and energy were a source of inspiration.
Ricky, you will be greatly missed by all of us at POLIN Museum.
On behalf of everyone at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, I extend my deepest sympathies to Ruth Parasol and to Richard's family and loved ones.
Zygmunt Stępiński
POLIN Museum Director
Richard Parasol was born in Częstochowa in 1935, Richard was an engineer, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist.
He was an only child within the Jewish middle-class Parasol family. His earliest years were wrought with the terror and loss surrounding the Holocaust. In 1941, at age six, his family was forced by the Nazis from their home and "relocated" to the city’s Jewish ghetto. At age eight, Richard became a "Hidden Child" and it would be the last time he would see his parents alive. Under the care of a Polish Catholic family, Richard hid until the war’s end in 1945. By adolescence, he had witnessed and endured enormous personal tragedy, yet he was affixed to survive and move forward. Astray without family or resources, Richard began the arduous journey as an orphan-refugee that would lead him out of Poland, through continental Europe and into Israel.
In 1948 Richard was successfully able to enter Israel and began his life studying and working in kibbutz Ein Harod. Kibbutz life helped to support the young orphan carve a future out for himself.
After a mandatory service in the IDF during the Suez Crisis of 1956 Richard was able to immigrate to the US to study mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). After graduating, he worked as an engineer for several years, and in 1964 left and used his hard earned savings to start buying and selling apartments in San Francisco. He was successful both in his professional and private life.
